Intended for scholars and general readers, this book draws upon applied linguistics and business communication research and adopts an interdisciplinary perspective. It is accessible and practical and opens up a number of interesting and important issues for discussion, such as the implications of business communication research for practitioners and the directions future business discourse researchers should pursue. The authors also provide a comprehensive overview of the profiles and work of leading researchers in the field, as well as the major research projects in business discourse to date; and as such the book constitutes a useful guide and resource for students and researchers.
The book comprises nine chapters and is organized in four parts. Each chapter begins with a list of the issues addressed and closes with a brief summary of the main points and suggestions for further reading. The first part, entitled “The field of business discourse” (chaps. 1 and 2), sets the scene by mapping this still under-researched area. Chap. 1 concerns itself with defining business discourse as well as providing an overview of the contribution of earlier research and presenting details of how different methodological approaches, such as Critical Applied Linguistics, have been used to research workplace talk. In chap. 2, in contrast, the authors focus on fruitful areas for future research, discussing concepts like interculturality and multimodality. They conclude the chapter by making a strong case for the need for a multidisciplinary approach to business discourse.
In the second part, “Applying business discourse research” (chaps. 3–5), the authors focus on applying and further extending the issues discussed in the first part. Chap. 3 pays special attention to the implications of research on business discourse for teaching and training purposes. Chaps. 4 and 5 continue this theme, but focus specifically on the issue of research-based consultancy (chap. 4) and on the under-researched concept of linguistic auditing. Part II concludes with a discussion of existing research-based teaching materials (chap. 5). The third part, “Researching business discourse,” comprises chaps. 6–8, which summarize existing projects and indicate areas for future research. One of these areas is the use of English in international contexts and the issue of English as the lingua franca of commerce. Chap. 7 presents a collection of appropriate methodologies and frameworks that can be adopted by students and researchers and provides details of studies that could be replicated, while chap. 8 continues the theme and reviews in depth five studies on intercultural discourse practices, English in the workplace, and metadiscourse. Finally, the fourth part (chap. 9) provides the reader with details of paper and Web-based sources that will be interest all scholars undertaking research in the area.
In line with a small but growing body of research, this book suggests ways in which interdisciplinary, data-driven research and empirical findings from workplace settings can inform macro theories and, subsequently, teaching/training practice. Despite drawing on a large number of studies, the authors have managed to produce a highly readable text that will interest both the general reader and the researcher.
